The Killing
by Maryland Rose
Summary: A Kindred and his victim are unwitting witnesses to a murder.


The Killing

"Please, let us in. He is after us. He saw our faces."

Cash heard the words as he went to answer the door. The knocking continued, insistent, and the voice at the other side bordered in hysteria.

"He shot her. I tried shielding her, but he got her. Let us in."

Cash opened the door and the two women stumbled in. One of them was Nell,a Torreador who had been unwillingly embraced by Eric a couple of years ago. The other was a stranger, a human on whom Nell had been feeding.

And something had gone wrong. There was freely flowing blood.

He frowned at Nell, wondering if she had forgotten how to close a wound properly. Then he saw it was coming out of the side of the woman's chest. Nell kept pressing her hand on the wound. but some blood trickled through her fingers.

"He shot at us. Five times. And she got hit once. I barely had time to shield her. And he saw our faces. He thinks we may identify him. He will come after us."

"Let me see."

Cash knelt by the woman. She was unconscious. Nell had put her in a trance for feeding, and she was still there. Well, that made things easier. He removed the clothes and saw the wound.

"Definitely a bullet wound." he said. "Bring me some rum."

"Rum?" "Emergency disinfectant. I may have to do some meatball surgery here. And calm down. I want to hear the whole story."

"I had found her outside. We went both of us into the alley. As soon as we were out of sight, I put her under. I began to feed, and I was doing it when I heard the shots. Somebody screamed, and I wanted to see..."

Cash shook his head. Nell was so...so naive. Her middle class upbringing in a suburb had not prepared her for this. When you hear shots you do not go out and ask what is going on. You peek from behind blinds, and do not reveal your presence, until it is safe to go out.

"She is lucky." he said. "the bullet only grazed the rib. I will have it out in a minute. Hold her steady. There it is. Get me some needle and thread. She will need a couple of stitches. Then we'll put a bandage on the wound. All right, you went out to see, and carried her along."

"I had to be with her at all times until she could leave me on her own." she said as she got the needle and thread. "I am responsible for her until then." she repeated the lesson that had been hammered into her.

It was a very sensible rule, Cash thought, but not when you make yourself a target. "So you saw."

"This man, dead on the ground, and this other man, with a gun nearby."

"And you screamed."

Cash wondered what had Julian and Lillie taught Nell. Certainly not basic rules of survival in a big city. It was all well and good to teach her about how to be Kindred and their history, with philosophical digressions along the way. But learning how to be streetwise never hurt anyone.

"Yes. So he lifted his head, and saw us. He cursed, and lifted his gun at us. I just had time to shield her, and he shot us. I felt four bullets come into me. I ran with her, and then I felt the blood in my hand, where I held her. I heard him running after us. You were the closest Kindred I could think of, so I knocked."

Cash shook his head. "Well, that's another fine mess." he took the unconscious woman pulse. "At least her pulse is steady. I think that she is going to live. Help me get her into a bed."

In a few moments she was laid down. Cash felt for her pulse again. Still steady. Rest would help restore her. And it would not hurt to get her blood volume up a little. "Get me some water." he told Nell. "I will try to bring her out halfway so that she can drink. Later we will get some food into her the same way. If we do this, before you know it, she will be as good as new."

The woman's eyes opened, but were unfocused.

"You are all right." Cash spoke reassuringly. "You are safe. Now, drink this. You are thirsty and this will ease it."

The woman did not need any more prompting. She swallowed it avidly, for indeed, she was thirsty. After two glasses Cash felt how the veins began to expand again. Her blood was thinner, but the volume was back to normal. They would keep giving her food and water the same way until it was safe to let her go.

Now the problem was how to let her go without getting her shot again. What he had there were two murder witnesses. Only one of them was not a witness, because she had seen nothing. And the other did not want to testify. Officially still a runaway, while her parents believed her dead,, Nell did not want to risk being returned to her parents, and having to tell them the whole story. But the killer did not know that.

"Was that a personal crime or a professional hit? Is the killer a single individual with limited resources, or can he call on a criminal organization for information and help?"

He had to find out. He called a couple of his people and ordered them to get him information about the killing, along with any gossip they could pick on the way.

Then he called Julian. Julian could use his connections to the police to have the problem handled while keeping these two out of it. He opened the woman's purse and took out her wallet.

"Carolyn Rogers." he said. "Twenty five years old." He looked at her. "Carolyn went for a good time, and found a Kindred with poor judgement instead. She ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"It should not have been like this." Nell said, plaintively.

"No. Well, next time you'll know. When you hear shots, or cries for help, you do not rush out and announce your presence. You go look, if you must, but you make sure you are not seen. And if you are being responsible for someone else, you do not bring them into danger. It was poor judgement in your part. But that is why we have all these rules about feeding, to keep Kindred with poor judgement from destroying themselves and endangering the rest of us when they feed. We may have to expand the rule now, covering these cases."

"I follow the rules, you know I do."

"No one said you didn't. They trained you well there. Where they slipped is in imagining that street survival rules would come naturally to you. Or maybe Julian was reluctant to destroy what he sees as your innocence. He has great affection for you, and that may cloud his own judgement too."

He knew why. Julian had lost Sasha to the Brujah at about the same time that Nell had been unwillingly embraced. Clan hatreds carried through the blood had turned Sasha against Julian, at least temporarily, and Julian had adopted the sireless Torreador girl, doing for her what he could not do for Sasha. He had fed her with his own blood for the first days, to accustom her to it, then he had taken her out hunting. He chose the human and determined if they were in a secluded, secure place, put him or her under, made the cut and watched Nell feed, until he told her to stop. Then he released the human and had Nell and himself along their source until their parting was witnessed. He repeated this night after night, making Nell participate more and more. First Nell must be able to stop on her own, which he did, then she had to learn how to make a cut safely and to close it afterwards, then she had to learn how to put her prey under, and how to release them. And walk with them until she found a witness who could see them part company.

Later he watched how she determined if the spot was secluded and safe, before she approached the human. It was only after he was certain that she knew all the steps and would feed unobtrusively, as Kindred were supposed to do, that he let her go on her own. And up to now, she had done that, without a slip.

"I did not want this to happen. If anything happens to her, it will be my fault."

"Well, she is safe for now. And we will do something about this killer hunting for you. Do not worry, we have the resources to keep both of you in the clear. And to tell the truth, this is the safest place for her to be. The gunman cannot get to her without getting through the Gangrels. Now, I have to take the bullets off you. Take off your blouse and lie down."

o

Julian was calm when he came in. He spoke softly to Nell, reassuring her, then turned to Cash

"It was a professional hit." he said. "Word is that it was arranged by the Infante mob."

"Infante? I heard that the Brujah were connected with them. If Infante asks Cameron for help to locate these two..."

"He won't. I know how to neutralize Cameron. You and I are going to pay him a visit, right now."

Cash looked at the two women.

"They will be all right here. No one knows yet where they are. After we neutralize Cameron, we can have a real doctor look at your patient, but not until then. For the moment, the less people know where she is, the better."

o

Cameron smiled venomously at Julian.

"Are you visiting me?"

"I am telling you to make

your will. I will get your head in a day or two."

"You plan to murder me?" "I have the votes to execute you. Mine, Cash's and Lillie's. Do you know what happened near the Haven tonight?"

"I heard of a disturbance."

"A professional hit. The murdered man was a witness against the Infante mob. Friends of yours last thing I heard."

"Don't believe most of what you hear."

"The area is a prime feeding ground for Kindred. Or at least it was. Now it is cordoned off by police, who are taking statements from anyone. They even went into the Haven. Kindred are being asked to give their name and address all over the place. Lillie is doing a slow burn over it. Your friend Infante trespassed on her ground."

"Infante is not my friend."

"There will be an investigation, and as soon as I find evidence that you are connected with Infante, and I will find it, I will take it to Lillie. She will ask me for your head, and I will give it to her."

"I am not connected with Infante in any way."

"I do not think that Lillie will believe it, any more than I do."

Without waiting for an answer he left, with Cash behind him.

"You just saved his neck, you know." Cash said as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Yes, I gave him time to sever his ties with Infante and destroy evidence. Which means that he will help us trap the hit-man. And when the authorities catch up with Infante, there will be nothing leading up to the Brujah."

"It is a shame, it would be a good opportunity to get rid of Cameron."

"I will not sacrifice Nell nor that other woman for it. And the most important thing is to plug the major leak we have. The sooner we give the police the hit-man and Infante, the sooner they will be gone, and the sooner Kindred can resume feeding without danger."

"You are right. I hate Cameron and all the Brujah, but the Masquerade takes priority."

"There will be other chances to get rid of Cameron. Or at least to neutralize him."

o

Nell paced nervously when they came back.

"It will work out fine." Julian said to her.

She shook her head. "The bullets. Cash took only three bullets off me."

"So?" Julian was puzzled.

"I was shot four times. The fourth bullet went through me, and then into her."

"It was not a serious wound."

"The bullet carried my blood with it. My blood entered her."

"So?"

"Have I embraced her by that?"

"She would have to be drained to the point of death for that to happen. All that your blood will do to her is to speed her healing."

"Are you sure?"

"Come." Julian went to Carolyn Rogers and checked her pulse. "Her heart beats steadily. She is recovering."

"If that would have happened...She has family, loved ones to return to. People who miss her. I cannot take her from them."

Julian knew what ate at Nell. Her unwilling embrace had severed all ties with her family. Her parents finally had come to believe she was dead after suffering the agonies of uncertainty for several months. And there was nothing that Nell could do to change it. Now she thought that she had made someone else suffer the same way.

Julian hugged her. "Poor child." he said. "But at least your parents can now go on with their lives with the baby."

"I know, but it does not seem enough." he sighed

"Nell, I know that you are worried, but if you are to stay at her bedside you cannot show it. Even unconscious, she senses that you are distraught. And at some level she thinks that it is because she is going to die. Even in her state she can hear. I want you to calm yourself, take her hand and tell her that she will be fine, that she will get well, and that she will be back with her loved ones soon. Can you do it?"

"I..I can try."

"Smile, Nell, take a deep breath. Close your eyes and try to find your center. Imagine that at the center of you there is this great peace spilling out. Let it reach every part of you. Let it take over you. Think of nothing but this peace."

Nell nodded. She followed his voice, and felt herself relax. Somehow her worries seemed distant, not so important...

"Now sit at her side, take her hand, and tell her that she will be all right."

o

The word in the street was that the hit-man had gone to ground. There had been witnesses to the hit, and they had not been found. Infante was ready to have the hit-man killed, to cut off that trail. But the hit-man had disappeared and would not reappear until the witnesses were safely dead.

"So now we have to find those witnesses." Frank said to Sonny.

"That will take some doing." He looked around to make sure they were not overhead.

"Julian wants to talk to both of us about it. He says he can help."

"What did he say, exactly?"

"That he needs to talk to both of us, and keep it secret. He knows that there is a leak from the department to the Infante mob. He does not want Infante to know what is going to happen. You meet him at the usual place. He will brief me later."

"What exactly does he know about this case?"

"The walls have ears, Frank. Talk about something else."

"I have the witnesses, Frank." Julian told him as soon as he sat down. "There is a problem, though."

"Let me guess. They are Kindred, and are not willing to testify."

o

"One of them is Kindred, and still listed as a runaway. The other one saw nothing. Nell had...put her under at the time."

"She was being bled at the time?"

"Yes. She would not recall anything since Nell approached her. But the gunman does not know that. He will try to kill her as well as Nell to insure his safety."

"Where is she?"

"Recovering. She was shot. Nell shielded her with her body, but one of the bullets that went through Nell grazed her rib. We took out the bullet and bandaged the wound. She is still unconscious, but her vital signs are steady. She will regain consciousness as soon as she is transferred to a regular clinic or hospital. But she will be never be any good as a witness, Frank."

"She might be good as bait, though." Frank mused.

"Frank, I would be glad to release her to your custody, if you can guarantee me her safety. Look at me in the eye Frank and swear to me that you can keep her safe. On your immortal soul, Frank, can you guarantee Carolyn Rogers safety?"

Frank shook his head. "I can't. Not with the department infiltrated by Infante. She is a lot safer where she is now." He paused, considering the situation. "We might be able to use Nell as bait. It has been a couple years since she disappeared, and the department will have forgotten her. Give her some fake I.D. and we can use her. Would she be willing?"

"She would. She knows that it is her responsibility to help put things right."

"Good."

"How close are the Feds to catching up with Infante?"

"Closer than they want us to believe. They do not trust us, either. And who can blame them?"

"So Infante must be getting desperate. And the hit-man is getting desperate now. If he cannot get rid of the witnesses soon, it will be his head on the block. Desperate people will make mistakes."

"Meaning that you think that we can take them."

"We can cooperate in this. You want Infante, I want the pressure off Nell and Carolyn Rogers. I want the police off the Haven too. And you know what resources I command."

"I will go along. Say did you say that Nell shielded Carolyn Rogers?"

"Yes." "That was quite decent of her, considering what she was doing to her."

"Carolyn Rogers was her responsibility, until the moment she regained consciousness and could take care of herself. That is what I taught Nell. Since Miss Rogers is still unconscious, we are still assuming responsibility."

"Is that what you all do? Take responsibility for your...victims?"

"That is what the Masquerade demands we all do. Make sure that your...source makes it to his or her next destination. Or if they do not make it, make sure that you are in the clear"

"Why would they not make it to their next destination?"

"Crime and accidents. You know what the statistics are. Odds are that eventually people that leave you will meet one of those. Do you remember the Carson kidnapping case?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how she was found?"

"The last person that she had met remembered that she had said something about a last-minute call that would take her to the other side of town. They followed that lead, tracked her car, and rescued her."

"If that man had not volunteered that information, would they have found her?"

"No. Because the next appointment in her list was miles away."

"But she had told him of the change of plans. She told him as she was walking her to her car. That man was Kindred, following the rules. He had bled her. He accompanied her to the car so as to be seen by the parking attendant, a witness who would see her leave him unharmed. When she turned out missing he was the last person to see her. He would have been in a very uncomfortable spot if he could not have proved that she had left him unharmed. The information he had to give the police was an added stroke of luck."

"I see. It is CYA."

"CYA?"

"Cover Your Ass."

"It is a crude way to put it, but accurate. Every now and then, not often, something goes wrong, as it happened with Nell, and we have to work hard to put things right."

"All right, how do we do it?"

o

Nell had given a description of the gunman, and the Kindred had his composite picture. All Kindred were looking for him, and the word was out that the man should be caught, and caught fast.

Others were tailing Infante. Cameron had ordered the Brujah to gather all the evidence against Infante that did not mention the Brujah in any way.

The Nosferatu listened and watched unseen, recording anything out of the ordinary, as they always did.

The police had met with Nell, who was under an assumed name. Frank and Sonny had "lost" her original missing person report; it would resurface later, in the wrong file folder. She was put in protective custody.

Carolyn Rogers had been checked into a clinic, as an accident victim. The Kindred doctor who admitted her listed the wound at her side as a laceration, and made sure that no one of the nurses that tended to it identified as a gunshot wound. (Actually he had said that the did not want to know what it was, so as to keep within the law. Since the bullet was out and the wound had already been sewn up when he saw it, he could pretend to believe Cash's diagnosis.) As an added precaution, Cash had four Gangrels keep watch on her at all times. The gunman would not connect an accident victim with one of the missing witnesses, but just in case, Carolyn Rogers would have a guard.

Now all they had to do was wait for the gunman or anyone connected with the Infante mob to try to kill Nell.

o

Frank prepared himself for the long wait that came with that kind of stakeout. And as luck would have it, Cash insisted on joining them, unofficially, while Sonny stayed in the next room with Nell.

"Well, now we wait." Cash said to Frank.

"I hope that you are a patient man." Frank said. "these things can get pretty boring."

"I have done this before. I know how it is done."

"That is good." Frank stretched on his chair and yawned. "Let's start to get really bored. He began to intone, absentmindedly "Strumming my face with his fingers, singing my life with his words, killing me softly with his song, Killing me softly."

"Man, don't you go around singing that where Julian can hear you."

"Why? He doesn't like it?"

"It affects him terribly. When he is in one of his dark moods he will sing along, and you won't believe how pathetic he makes it sound. I mean as it is, it is pathetic enough, all about guilt and shame. But when Julian sings along, it can break your heart. By the time he reaches the final wail, he may be crying on your shoulder. And since we weep tears of blood, you can imagine how messy it gets."

"You make him sound quite messed up."

"Julian is a good guy. His problem is that he don't believe it. Oh, what the Hell, you've been to Vietnam?"

"Before my time. But I know quite a number of veterans."

"So you know about Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Well, if he was human, Julian would be diagnosed with that. Only he has a position, an image to maintain. He can't afford to be seen as weak, so he will never go for therapy. He just endures his bad days as best he can, and has friends like me to talk sense into him when he comes close to going off the deep end."

"You are very close to him."

"He sees the big picture. I see the nitty gritty. I can go into the street and know each thing that goes on, and pass it along. Then Julian puts it all together in his mind and comes up with an answer. But he doesn't know that street half as well as I do. That was why Nell got into this mess. Julian trained her, and did not bother to tell her not to show her face and announce her presence when she hears shots. She is very sweet, but that was unbelievable dumb. If any of those I sired ever did anything that stupid, they would never hear the end of it. On the other hand, no sooner Julian knew that the problem was, that he was coming up with solutions. He neutralized Cameron and we don't have to worry about the Brujah helping this guy."

"He told me that Nell shielded Carolyn Rogers with her body. He said that it was expected of her to protect her...source."

"And you don't believe that we would be so...considerate?"

"Well, I keep thinking. What keeps you from abandoning them on the street? If there were no witnesses? Or killing them if there was no one who would miss them?"

"And who would determine that no one would miss them? Or that there are no witnesses? The Kindred who is trying to feed?"

"Yes."

"How many dumb criminals have you run across?"

"Quite a number. They can be really stupid."

"I read once about this attempted murder for hire in New Jersey. The would- be-killers not only failed to kill their victim, but they also did not notice the police car riding just behind them."

"I remember that case. We had a good laugh with it." "Do you know how many Kindred are there who don't have any better sense than that?"

He said nothing more for a few moments, letting that sink in.

"I..I see." Frank admitted.

"Do you think that we would risk the Masquerade by allowing people with that kind of judgment to make their own decisions about what is safe feeding and what is not? Hell, no. We drill them. We teach them the right way to do it, and don't allow them to depart from the script. When we are certain that they can follow procedure in their sleep, we tell them that they can feed on their own. All clans do it."

"Even the Brujah?"

"They are probably stricter than we are. Think about it. You are putting through this hundred of thousands criminal deal, are you going to risk having the police around, investigating a dead body in the alley with too much missing blood? The Brujah have done enough professional killings to know how hard it is to leave a dead trail. After all, hit-men don't come cheap. And why are they so expensive? Any idiot can pull a trigger. To pull a trigger and leave no evidence behind takes a professional, a very expensive one. Would they then allow a dumb kid to leave a trail that a child of four can follow, just to get something that an be obtained just as easily with no fuss, and no one being the wiser?"

"It makes no sense." Frank agreed.

"We don't allow Kindred with poor judgement to abandon unconscious victims on the street. We don't allow them to make judgements as to whether or not there are witnesses. We assume there are always witnesses, and so we say, find a witness that sees your source walk away from you. And never assume that no one will miss them. For all you know they have embezzled thousands of dollars from a mob boss, and they are being chased by people with guns. Or they are in some Most Wanted List. You don't want to be the last person to be seen with them. So make sure that they are seen to go someplace else afterwards."

"And that is how you all feed."

"That's how we stay hidden. And that's how we can feed so blatantly all over the place. All the time you had come to the club, all the times you have met me there, how often do you think you could have caught me at it if you had paid attention? I did it right under your nose, and you never noticed. I would disappear for a few minutes, talking to someone. A few minutes later we would reappear, still talking. And no one ever caught on."

"You make it sound simple."

"Complicated we can't afford. We have to feed regularly."

Frank said nothing, digesting the information that Cash had given him. It made sense, once you looked at it from Cash's perspective.

"We don't look so scary now, do we?" Cash mocked him.

"No, you do not." Frank admitted. "But still you steal."

"Petty larceny, Sonny calls it. Since you are in Homicide you don't have to be concerned with it."

"Yes, it is technically petty larceny. You take it without violence or threats of violence, and the monetary value of what you take is small. I guess that is how Sonny can handle being a cop and a crook at the same time. If he was assigned to cover petty larceny instead of Homicide, it would be a lot more uncomfortable for him."

Cash looked out into the street. It was still empty.

"The guy should be coming in any moment." Frank said.

"We have a good idea of his movements, but we seem to have lost since the last three hours. Maybe Infante caught up with him and deep-sixed him already."

"Don't be so goddamn cheerful."

"We can still get Infante. Cameron will be delivering evidence against him."

"How did you get him to cooperate in this?"

"That is Julian's doing. He warned Cameron that if there was any tie proven between him and Infante, he was dead. And Julian would do it. So Cameron is scuttling Infante. He is gathering all the evidence he can that leaves him and the Brujah in the clear, and make sure that this is all the evidence that the authorities get. Infante chose a very bad spot to have that witness killed."

"He invaded your territory."

"He got the police in our territory, asking questions. We'd rather not be involved in an investigation, not even as innocent bystanders."

"So you will deliver the suspect to us, with the evidence, all gift- wrapped."

"And everybody will be happy."

"And let me guess what happens next. We catch the gunman. Sonny and I interrogate him, and Sonny makes him accept a deal. No death penalty if he testifies against Infante. The authorities get also the evidence from Cameron, which we get by a stroke of luck when we search Infante's premises. Nell disappears again, but by then we have the gunman's confession and all the other evidence so her testimony is not really needed. The Feds put away Infante for a long time, or he gets a lethal injection, according to what the jury feels like doing with him. The Feds congratulate themselves. Sonny interrogates Infante, and makes him tell the name of our traitor. Everybody is happy."

"And Carolyn Rogers is released from the hospital, and goes home to her family."

"And the Kindred resume feeding in and around the Haven with no police around asking questions."

"And the next time Carolyn Rogers goes back to the Haven, she will get bled by a Kindred with more judgement than Nell, and all that she will lose will be a few minutes of her time."

"The way it should have happened if Nell had been more streetwise, eh?"

"Yes."

Frank looked at his watch. "But the gunman is still not showing up."

"He will, eventually."

o

Sonny had insisted that Nell get some rest. "You do not need to get tired doing this. I am being paid to stay up until I am relieved or this guy shows up, and you are not. Your part is to look frightened and helpless."

"How am I doing it?"

"You are doing great. But it is better than when my replacement comes you be in bed. They are human, and if you do not talk to them, you will not slip."

Her face fell. "You think I can betray our secrets to them?"

Sonny put his arm around her shoulders. "Nell, you are a wonderful girl. You are warm, affectionate, caring. I think very highly of you. But you are out of your depth here. We are dealing with very nasty, very dangerous people. Your safety depends on your doing exactly as we tell you. And what I tell you is that the less you talk with human police officers, the better for everyone."

Nell hugged him. "Sonny, you are so good. You all take such good care of me...this is not what I expected when...when I understood what had happened to me. Julian would not say the word, but I knew what someone who must drink blood is called. And all I had to go on were the movies, and the movies said that I was a soulless monster, a remorseless killer, and that I was better off dead."

"And that you needed to sleep in a coffin, and had no mirror reflection." He laughed, "I can imagine how upset Julian would be if he had no mirror reflection. He is very vain about his appearance. You never see him with a hair out of place. Without a mirror he could not do it."

"Julian is so good. He is been so nice to me. I wish I could let him know how I feel."

"Don't fall in love with him. His heart is already spoken for."

"I know. I do not expect him to love me. It is just that..."

"That you are very fond of the ground that he walks on." Sonny said, smiling. "Don't worry, you are not the only one who feels that way."

Nell said nothing, just kept hugging Sonny.

"In any case, don't worry about the movies. What they show, and what really happens are two different things. I learned it quite early, thanks to Stephen Fetchitt and other ways that Hollywood depicted black people. What they showed had nothing to do with the way I knew black people lived. It made me quite angry, to tell the truth. But what could I do, except send regular donations to the NAACP and such?"

"Were in involved it the Civil Rights struggle?"

"As much as I could without breaking the Masquerade. I will tell you about it one day."

o

"The gunman has been sighted." Cash said, putting his walkie-talkie away. He is about ten blocks from here."

"He is coming?"

"Yes."

"Well," Frank took out his gun. "I'll go tell Sonny to be on his guard."

"Do you want me to come along? Or would you rather have me on the street checking up?"

"You want to check on the street, then come back? We still have time to get ready. Or is it just that you want to go out and feed?"

"That can wait until we catch this guy. I just want to look around"

"Well, this guy is coming. Should be here in a few minutes."

o

"We are about to be relieved in a few minutes. Do you want to hang around with our replacements?" Sonny asked Frank.

"Who are they?"

"Malone and Quist."

"No way that we can tell them the truth, can we? You could put them under and rearrange their memories, I imagine."

"They need to be alert. We must come up with a good story to delay our departure."

Their walkie-talkie buzzed.

"It is Cash. The gunman has been seen with this cop. The Kindred who saw him does not know the cop's name, but recognizes him."

"A cop?" Frank had a sinking feeling "Tell him or her to tail that cop to his car, and give me the car tags, or any identification. Describe the cop to me."

He looked at Sonny. They were both thinking the same. Either Malone or Quist was the leak. He would allow the gunman to come in, kill Nell, kill the cop's partner, and wound the traitor, not seriously, to give him a cover.

"We better come up with a good story to tell the captain, partner." Frank said.

Sonny nodded. "Malone or Quist."

Frank shook his head. "I would not have believed it of either of them."

Cash called them again with the police car I.D. It was definitively Malone and Quist. The physical description made it clear that it was Malone. Frank sighed, and asked Cash to get back with them quickly.

Sonny looked out of the window. Their hotel room overlooked the bay. It was possible that a body falling through the window could fall in the water. There it could be sucked down by the boat's propellers and dragged to the bottom. It might even never be recovered. It was time for Nell to disappear again.

"We have to save Quist's life." Sonny said. "We are going to lose Nell, but we will have Malone and the gunman. We will have the gunman for Nell's murder, and Malone as accessory. They will talk and give us enough for a search warrant on Infante."

o

He went into Nell's room and told her to be ready to jump out of the window, but not before she helped put the policemen and the gunman under. She was in her nightgown. He told her to keep on herself whatever she did not want to leave behind and abandon the rest. Her fake I.D., her street clothes, her cash could be abandoned, Nell said. She had nothing else, except some personal jewelry.

"Don't leave that behind." Sonny said.

He went to the window. Fortunately it was the kind that would open, and Nell would not have to jump through the glass.

"You will have to jump. Do you think that you can do it? When you come down, disappear. Cash will arrange to have you picked our report you will have fallen into the Bay and drowned."

Nell nodded. "I think that I can do it."

"Good." He hugged her. "It is now coming down to the wire. We will see this through."

"And I promise that next time I hear shots I will not rush in to find out what happened."

"That is good. But since you are going to give Infante to us, I cannot complain."

Nell was puzzled. "Give Infante to us?"

"Us cops." Sonny grinned. "Sometimes I speak as Kindred, sometimes I speak as a cop. Now I am being a cop. One day you will understand what I mean."

o

Malone and Quist had arrived. Frank and Sonny briefed them, trying to stretch the time as much as they could. Malone was impatient, even though he tried not to show it. If they needed any more proof of his betrayal, he was showing it right there. Quist, on the other hand, was glad to go things over one more time.

Finally, they could not delay any longer,and Frank and Sonny left.

"Where is Cash?" Frank said. "He is in position. He had to arrange to have Nell picked up when she jumps."

"Cash has to keep Quist alive."

"I told him that already."

They went down the elevator, grateful that the old hotel had only one. Once downstairs, they lingered in the lobby to make sure they did not miss the arrival of the gunman. He did not take long.

Frank and Sonny let him go to the elevator, then, for the benefit of the witnesses, they reacted, as if they had recognized him at that moment. They raced up the stairs, cursing, hoping to beat the elevator.

"They should give us Oscars for this performance." Frank panted

. "Or at least Julian should pay for our beers they next time we meet." Son

ny answered.

They heard a shot as they reached the corridor. They looked at each other.

"Let's hope that Cash shielded Quist" Sonny muttered.

When they came in both the gunman and Malone were frozen in place, with Nell standing next to them. Quist was on the floor, unconscious, with Cash kneeling next to him.

"Is he..?" Frank asked.

"He is alive, unharmed. There is a problem. The gunman did shoot him, and we are going to have to explain the bullet".

"Where did the bullet go?'

"Here." he indicated his shoulder.

"Which one shot him?"

"The gunman."

"All right." Sonny said. "This is how we are going to play it. You Nell, take the bullet out of Cash's shoulder. Use these. Don't touch it with your fingers. You, Frank, take the gunman's hand and shoot Quist in his shoulder." He indicated the spot that he wanted to go in. "It will be painful and bloody, but not fatal.

"And then?"

"I am going to tell them what they should remember. You, Cash, coach me on what you saw."

Frank shot Quist, and saw the blood spread out.

"I have the bullet." Nell said.

"Good, give it to me. Now jump out of the window. Right now." He pushed the bullet into the floor next to Quist.

"Now it will look as if one bullet missed him."

"The neighbors will note the span in time between shots."

"That is why you and I will be the ones taking statements."

Sonny repeated the scenario that all three were to remember. Cash disappeared again, and Sonny brought the three men back.

"He... he tried to kill me." Quist said, as soon as Frank had handcuffed the gunman. "And Malone helped him. Malone, why? We are friends."

Sonny pressed a cloth to the wound. "Keep pressure on this. It is not a fatal wound. You will live, Quist."

Frank handcuffed Malone, who would not say anything. His face showed that he knew that he had lost, and that there was no more hope for him.

Everything went by the script afterwards. They called an ambulance for Quist, who left still, cursing his partner. They called on backup to look for Nell's body, which of course, was not found. They interrogated the neighbors, to be thorough.

Sonny took advantage of the gunman being still in a suggestive state to tell stories of how sometimes lethal injection was not the painless end it was pictured as being. He added how Infante would continue to enjoy his power and wealth after the gunman had been executed, since nothing would connect him to Nell's death. He reminded the gunman that Infante would have had him killed if the witnesses were not found in time. He was persuasive enough, and with the power he already held over the gunman's mind, by the time they reached the police station the gunman was ready to make a deal.

The judge gave them the search warrant for Infante in record time. And the evidence that Cameron had planted was ready for them when they went in. Now all they had to do was celebrate.

"Score one for the good guys." Frank said, lifting the beer that Julian was paying for. "Full sweep. Infante is out of the picture, with so many charges that he may not see daylight again until the end of the next century."

"Unless he gets the death penalty." Sonny said. "And it could not have happened to a nicer guy."

"I know that the gunman is spilling his gust. How about Malone?" Cash asked.

"Malone will not deal." Sonny said. "Does he understand that he will be executed for Nell's 'death'?" Julian asked.

"Yes. He chose not to deal." Frank said. "He said that he knows what happens to an ex-cop in the joint. He said that he would rather be dead."

"Well, he will get his wish." Sonny shrugged. "Cannot say that I feel sorry for him."

"Bad cop." Cash shrugged. "Not much to be sorry for."

"So, thanks to the combined efforts of the San Francisco Police Department and the Prince of the City, we have a safer city to live in. We ought to do this more often." Frank ordered another beer. "Specially if the Prince insists on paying for our drinks afterwards. Hey, what happened to all that 'don't drink wine' stuff?"

"I do not know about others, but me, I like beer a lot better." Cash laughed. "Blood is what I must take. Beer is what I like. Guiness Stout, to be specific."

"I go for Molson myself." Sonny said. "Heineken." Frank offered.

"I prefer porter ales." Julian said." Anyway, this business went to the advantage of everyone. Nell is much happier now that Carolyn Rogers has gone home to her family, with no memory of what really happened. For the record, she was in an accident. She does not remember the details, but that is not so unusual with accidents. She'll be fully recovered in a couple of days. And there is no connection between her and the Infante case."

"So that's another leak plugged." Sonny said.

"And the police are out of the Haven. Kindred are feeling comfortable there again." Julian shook his head. "And this was a wake-up call for Cameron. He is going to take a hard look to the businesses that he inherited from Eddie Fiori, and see what he can get rid off."

"You mean that he will try to go legitimate?" Frank asked. "If he can get a good price out of me to do so. You see, Cameron is different from Eddie. He hates me, but for all of that, his mind works like mine. Eddie was a thug. He was a mob boss who happened to be Kindred. For him being Kindred meant an advantage because of the resources it gave him, or a disadvantage, because it forced him to deal with me. Cameron is Kindred first, and the Brujah business he is in charge of is an incidental. He is willing to deal, and see what he can get out of me as compensation."

"And you will give him...?" Sonny was worried as he asked this. "Less that he aims for, but enough to whet his appetite. I will not give him power to hurt me, which is what he really wants."

"That's good. How about Caitlin? Does she have enough material to write about? No suspicion about the stuff that you are keeping away from her?" Frank put in.

"She has her hands full with this story." Julian frowned. He did not like Frank discussing Caitlin.

"Better hope that she never finds out how many stories you have kept from her. I know something about the wrath of reporters who think that they have been made fools of."

Julian shot him a warning look, but Frank was too giddy to pay attention. "Let's say, if I ever see you wearing her word processor wrapped around your neck, I'll know that she found out."

Cash guffawed at that. "She will do it, Julian. There is steel in that lady. And she is the best thing that happened to you. So don't blow it with her, okay?"

Julian looked uncomfortable. "I'd rather not discuss her, if you don't mind." he said.

"Hey, man, we love you, don't we all?" Cash put his hand on top of Julian's "we mean no harm."

"Yes." Julian relaxed again. "You are all my friends." "

Well, as I say. We won this one." Frank lifted his glass. "Let's do this more often, all right?"

"All right." Julian, Cash, and Sonny said clicking their glasses with Frank's. "Let's do."


End file.
